The invention relates to a method of and to an apparatus for ascertaining or measuring the moisture content of certain commodities such as shredded tobacco, wood, foodstuffs and other hygroscopic materials.
The moisture content of certain hygroscopic materials plays an important role during making, processing and/or storage of such commodities. For example, the moisture content of tobacco shreds which are to be draped into cigarette paper or other wrapping material, or the moisture content of tobacco leaves which are to be converted into shreds, is normally maintained within a predetermined range. The same holds true for the making, processing and/or storage of wood, many types of foodstuffs and numerous other hygroscopic commodities. Therefore, it is customary to employ moisture measuring or detecting apparatus which are put to continuous use during making, processing and/or storage of the aforediscussed and/or other hygroscopic commodities. Heretofore known moisture measuring apparatus are quite reliable as long as the monitored commodities exhibit at least substantially uniform (homogeneous) chemical and biological properties. However, if the biological and/or chemical properties of the monitored commodities vary, or if the composition of the commodities changes, the results of measurements are no longer reliable and, in fact, can denote values which deviate considerably from the actual moisture content. Due to such dependency of conventional moisture measuring apparatus upon the "blend" of the hygroscopic commodities, their utility is rather limited and, therefore, it is often necessary to employ a wide variety of moisture measuring apparatus each of which can be put to use only under certain specific circumstances.